March is Membership Month at the Mondavi Center and we're going to share the stories of several members during the upcoming week. Clairelee Leiser Bulkley and Ralph Bulkley are major annual donors, plus they have started an orchestra endowment and are leaving a generous legacy to help secure the future of the Mondavi Center.
Like their dear friend Barbara Jackson, they echo St. Augustine’s belief that “Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure: where your treasure, there your heart; where your heart, there your happiness.” Both Clairelee and Ralph value the arts and it gives them great pleasure knowing that their support benefits artists and the Mondavi Center’s efforts to bring the arts to the community.
Clairelee has spent decades as a violinist with the UC Davis orchestra, so one of her favorite performances was the Zurich Chamber Orchestra with the talented violinist and music director Daniel Hope performing a riveting performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as well as Max Richter’s reinterpretation of the classic. She is a fan of violinist Itzhak Perlman, and his last MC performance, which included a retrospective of his career, was especially poignant and enjoyable. You can always find her at MC’s presentations of Pink Martini – especially when her friend vocalist Storm Large performs.